Love for the other side
by Ryuzaki's dentist
Summary: AU Keira and Jak grow up in seperate parts of Kras city, the city is divided and ruled by powerful ganglords, in a world where people are hated because of petty differences, can the two find love?
1. Prologue

YAY! New AU story, I'll be working on this quite a lot!

Disclaimer: I own nothing apart from a copy of each of the games. Rated for violence, language and romantic/adult themes. Most (if not all) of the characters are ©Naughty Dog.

Prologue.

Kras City; a real rough place to live, not just because of the lack of security and a corrupt government. But the City was divided, the north side and the south side of Kras City were a world apart, two powerful crime families resided there, both armed with some of the deadliest weapons known to man. And that was putting it lightly.

There were a few ways to tell the two crime families apart, one was the colour of clothes they wore, most of the inhabitants from the North side dressed in reds, sometimes yellows, pinks and oranges, but more commonly the Northern elves dressed in reds. Whereas the elves from the South side of the city wore mostly blue, but also greens and purples.

Another way to tell them apart was by looking at the ears, (A.N: If you ever look at Jak or Edje's ears, the tips of their ears are pointier than others, in this fic there are gonna be more elves with pointy ears.) those from the Northern side had curved plain ears whereas those from the Southern side had tips on the ends of their ears, Northern inhabitants claimed that the pointier the ear, the more brash and arrogant you became, however if you were to ask someone who had grown up in the Southern area of the city, they would tell you that the pointier the ears, the more intelligent.

There were few other differences, no difference in beliefs – apart from the theories on the ears -, no difference in species, race or religion, no difference in language, they didn't look all that different either, apart from the ears and style of clothes, they were exactly the same, so that surely meant no reason for war, didn't it? Obviously not, because still they fought like enemies, people living in the between the two sides of the city were the most unfortunate, constant fights, fires were usually started due to the odd Molotov cocktail thrown in the fights, and sometimes even the Kras Guards would have to come with tear gas and make human barriers between the two rivalling crime families.

Each side was dominated by one person, Rayn – a young, very well spoken, conniving, daughter of one of the most well known gang lords the city had ever known - ruled the North side of Haven City after her Father, Krew, passed away, and Mizo – a ruthless tyrant, in around his mid thirties - ruled the South side.

But I don't want to bore you with the little details, this story is about two people in particular; Keira a young teenage girl, who'd grown up on the North side of Kras all of her life working on the battlefield trying to stay alive, and Jak a teenage boy not much older than Keira, who'd spent his life living in some of the roughest areas of South Kras City, until his ninth birthday when after a rather unfortunate run in with a wumpbee nest, he found himself working as one of Mizo's hired guns and also expert spies, not a nice job for someone who longed to get out of Kras city and settle down somewhere where life was much more simple. But his chances of leaving the city, were slim.

Yes I know, very short prologue, listen I hate writing them okay? The next chapter will be soooo much better, so you can review this one 'chapter' if you want but I'd wait for the next chapter if I were you.


	2. 1: Keira: Life spared

Okay, here's the second chapter and I promise it will be sooo much better, I'm gonna make it switch between POVs, like this chapter will be in Keira's POV, the next chapter it will be Jak's, then back to Keira and so on and so forth. Oh yeah and some of the OCs in this fic are in some of my other fics, even though they haven't been posted yet.

Disclaimer: I own only this plot and some of the characters.

Keira: Chapter 1: Life spared.

So there I was, stood shoulder to shoulder with my two friends; Shiv and Errol, okay, they weren't really my friends, more like two guys who just happened to live on the same side of Kras city with me and just happened to work with me in just about every mission I went on, and if I messed up, they denied ever being with me at the time, which was just about always. Life can be really hard sometimes.

"So, what are we doing again?" Shiv asked, Errol and I just sighed, Shiv had one of the shortest memories known to man, not to mention the shortest ears, most of our allies called him a 'tipper' frequently, perhaps I should elaborate on what a tipper is, a tipper is someone from the South side of Kras city, someone with tips on the ends of their ears, I hated the name, it's not like it was their fault they had weird ears, anyway, hey reason everyone called Shiv a tipper was because before he'd moved to Kras from the wasteland – why he'd move to this dump nobody knows – he'd lost his ears in a fight with a pretty angry mother metal head, so nobody knew whether or not he had curved or tipped ears.

We were all dressed in red, Errol had an orange fire pattern running down the sleeves of his tunic, Shiv had the same only on his trousers too. I just had plain red, I couldn't be bothered with paying extra for stupid little patterns, as far as I was concerned as long as it kept me warm and it kept my body armour and weapons discreet it'd do just fine, not that I needed to keep my three handguns and two pocket knifes discreet, everyone was used to seeing weapons being brandished and more often than not used in the streets, we were never stopped by a member of the Kras guard, as long as we weren't hurting 'civilised members of the community' we were okay to kill and maim as much as we liked.

"Hey Errol, what do Tippers and hip-hogs have in common?" Shiv asked; here came another joke where people from the south side were the ones getting teased and insulted. Erol shrugged and gestured for Shiv to tell. "They both are yet to understand the word 'soap'" Shiv chuckled, Errol joined in, I just rolled my eyes, it wasn't even a funny joke, but if it was at the Southerner's expense it didn't matter how lame the joke was.

"You two shut up, we're supposed to be looking out for two males and three females all dressed in blue, Rayn says we have to take them out and report back to the base, _like professionals_" I growled, some people were so damn immature.

"Well thanks for pissing on our little bonfire miss so-stuck-up-her-own-ass-she-can-see-her-ribcage!" Shiv always knew how to wind me up; if it weren't for the fact that we had to work together he would be dead on the floor in two seconds flat. "I never knew you were one to protect the Tippers." Well that was the biggest lie of the centaury, Shiv knew full well I was totally against the racism in this country, I was only fighting in this war because I'd been born into the family, my father was a well known man in the crime family, he was the right hand man in everything, but the chances of him ever taking over the crime family were awfully slim, he was a lot older than Rayn, and even if Rayn did die before Samos my father, there was no certainty that he'd ascend to full power of this operation, but I didn't mind, 'cause that would mean I would have more chance of flying to the moon in a bright orange dinghy than getting out of this dump if my father became the leader, because from the minute my father died to the moment I died, I would be the new leader. "So when did you say those son of a bitch Tippers were gonna get here again?"

"I don't know, Rayn just said that she'd heard that some Southerners were heading North with weapons and that we had to take them out, they were spotted quite near here about half an hour ago." I explained.

"So really, they could've passed a long time ago and we wouldn't know? Those no good bastard Tippers could be killing some of our own this very minute and we're stood here like morons? Doesn't it occur to you that they could have passed here ages ago you daft bitch?" I punched him for that, straight in the face, I'd never been one to slap people, too hit and miss, a good hard punch in the cheek let them know who was boss. "Sorry Keira."

"That's better, now shut up or next time I'll knock you out!" I hissed.

"Well good, at least if I was unconscious I wouldn't have to look at that ugly mug for a while!"

"You're no oil painting yourself!"

"Then why don't you take a picture? It lasts longer!"

"I would but the lens would break!"

"Stupid cow!"

"Arrogant racist pig"

"Tipper lover!"

"Hey you two, sorry to interrupt your little cat fight, but I think I see them!" Errol pointed to three women and two men, they fitted the description perfectly, the guys had darker blue clothing on than the females, on of the guys was considerably younger than the rest of the group, like me really, but he didn't look inexperienced, he had a determined look on his face, his dark blue eyes scanning the area around him like it was going out of fashion, his green hair tied back in a small pony tail to keep it out of his face whilst shooting, he was carrying a gun with a blaster mod attached, not good, those things could be lethal if they were used skilfully, the other male was at least two heads taller than him, much darker skin, head shaved bald (A.N: Ever notice how we never see Sig's hair? I'm just guessing he's bald in this fic) and one of his eyes was missing and was replaced with what seemed to be a piece of goggle, but his other eye was a bright green.

I didn't really study the female's features, I'd spent enough time concentrating on their male allies, all I knew was they all had blue clothing and they all had tipped ears, that was all I needed to know, we all hid behind a car and slowly reached for our most effective guns, I took out my trusty grey handgun that I kept in a small holster around my calf, Shiv and Errol took out identical Vulcan furys, so predictable.

"So what's the plan?" Errol asked whilst checking his ammo supplies were easy to access and that the Vulcan mod was correctly assembled.

"We wait for them to pass us by, then when their backs are turned, we shoot them, and if they spot us we shoot at them anyway and try to retreat back to the base and round up a few more troops, understood?" They both nodded. "Any questions?"

"Yeah, are the Tippers supposed to know we're behind the car?" Shiv asked me, I frowned and shook my head. "Oh that's a shame 'cause if you look up I do believe you'll find they've already found us!" I looked up and the man with the green hair and blue eyes was stood on the car staring down at me with a blaster in his hands, aimed directly at my head.

"Oh shit." Errol gasped, and as though in an animated cartoon the two zipped away quicker than an Ottsel could make a Saint swear. And as soon as they ran, the others in our enemies group ran after them, so I was sat there next to the green haired teenager with a dangerous gun in my face.

He stood there for what seemed an age, completely still, a statue made more movement than him, he didn't even seem to be breathing, I knew I wasn't as still and calm as he was, I could feel myself shaking from terror, this was the end of me, I'd seen people get shot dead on the spot in my fourteen years of life, to be honest, I'd never been afraid of death, anything could be better than this, but now that I was face to face with it, to say I was scared would be an understatement.

I could hear my heart thumping, my blood felt like it had turned to ice and as for the butterflies in my stomach, lets just say that to call it a stampede of angry metal heads would better suit how I was feeling. The man had me at point blank range, one pull on the trigger and a bullet would shoot down though my skull and brain and end up in or through my heart, I didn't have a chance.

I took my last few minutes of life to study the guy's face, the deepness of his blue eyes, the hint of sadness on his expression, his green hair, it was no doubt shoulder length but he'd tied it up pretty high so it only reached the bottom of his head, the small tips on the ends of his ears, the texture of his olive skin, a few scars from previous battles scattered across his face, but otherwise untouched, I diverted my gaze further down his body, first to his loose blue T-shirt, it showed off only a small bit of his chest, I noticed a bullet wound on his left side and the top of his chest armour, I studied his arms, well toned but once again, showed the wear and tear of living in a constant gang war, a small silver shoulder plate was fastened onto his left shoulder, navy blue fingerless gloves and poorly treated nails that seemed to have been bitten down to half their original size.

He looked around to make sure everyone had left, then jumped down next to me and slammed the gun to the ground. I looked at the gun shocked, half expecting to see it blow up in my face, it wasn't uncommon for some of the gangsters to keep mini explosives in their guns in case all didn't go as planned or if they just got bored of shooting people and found stuff that went boom more fun, a.k.a: freaks.

Then I stared once more up at the man, waiting for him to strangle me, or take out a more painful weapon to use, but he never did, instead he just grabbed hold of my face with one of his hands, it was softer than I imagined but it still hurt a bit being that fact that he had a firm grip on my cheeks.

"Now listen closely, I don't like killing people, it's not in my nature, I'm gonna let you go, you're gonna run, you're gonna forget me, and we'll never meet again, you say one word about me to your friends, and I'll kill you, and believe me, I'm rarely in a good mood when people talk about me at the best of times, so if you piss me off, you're gonna pay, is that understood Keira?" I nodded, I decided against asking how he knew my name, he'd no doubt heard our little conversation and heard my name.

He let go of my face, picked up his blaster then walked away back to his side of the city.

I watched as I saw him walking away from me. I sat on the floor for about ten minutes, before I finally pulled myself together and got up, dusting myself down I made sure I'd gathered all of my belongings and set off towards the base, being careful not to be seen by the rest of the thugs from the other side of the city.

But as I walked there was one thing on my mind. There was no way he could've known my name, because as I remembered my conversation with Shiv and Errol, when he came along, neither Shiv nor Errol had said my name.

He knew more about me than I thought.

Wow, Chapter 1 ready to go! Now if the Internet would stop lagging I could update this. Anyway, review, tell me what you think, inform me of spelling and grammar mistakes and if you wanna make some suggestions for later chapters please feel free to do so, flames are also welcome but try to go easy on those okay?


	3. 2: Jak: Punishment

Whoo! Reviewers! Lots and lots of reviewers! I won't disappoint you guys (and girls)! Promise! So; chapter two, or chapter three if you count the prologue; which I don't. This one is written in Jak's POV, yay! Oh, and before I forget, in answer to your question Jaklover123; I know Rayn took over when Mizo died, but it's an AU, and they were as gang lord like I could get.

Jak: Chapter 2: Punishment.

I had returned back to my base a quarter of an hour ago and I was getting bombarded with questions.

"Did you kill the girl?"

"Why did you take so long?"

"What happened to the others?"

"How many of those Curvers were there?"

"Did they steal anything?"

Just as I thought no 'welcome back' or, 'are you okay?' straight down to business, and if they weren't asking how the mission went, they were badmouthing 'Curvers' also known as Northerners, but to these people it was always 'Curvers', their ears weren't normal according to most, I didn't care about stupid things like ear shapes and clothing colours, but I was forced into this life, and once you're squeezed into the corner of fighting to stay alive, you rarely make a victorious escape, there were only two ways to escape this sort of street life, jail and with a corrupt government the prison guards were allowed to do whatever the hell they pleased with you the evil bastards, or death, and I don't like things I don't know much about, that's why I never got into using computers.

I was now standing in front of the big man himself, Mizo, and he was pissed off, and I mean really pissed off, veins and blood vessels looked like they were gonna burst, his eyes were burning holes into my head, his face was actually starting to turn a nasty shade of scarlet, making the black tattoos on his bald scalp stand out even more than usual.

"Now Jak I want to make this very clear." I gulped, when Mizo started talking like this he'd usually get violent, and I seemed to be in the firing line once again. "When I ask you to kill someone, I don't mean that you hold a gun to their face and then run off! Even if you'd have shot her but she didn't die I wouldn't be as angry, you're nothing but a worthless failure." Then I felt the back of his hand – baring in mind Mizo wears about fifty gold rings on each finger – collide with my right cheek, I stumbled sideways and that was the opening Mizo needed, he kicked me to the floor, then winded me by kicking me again in my stomach, I curled up into a small ball trying to avoid any damage to my face.

Too late, old ink head was completely set on making me pay for what I'd done, his boot collided with my face, I though my nose would break but instead it just bled and hurt, now I knew why we were all given steel-cap boots to wear, they inflict a hell of a lot of pain!

The beating carried on for about four minutes – Mizo never liked to beat his own 'kind' up for too long – then I got back to my feet, body bruised and bloody, but I didn't care, I'd been hit by much worse, metal heads for example, when they hit they **really **hurt, a baby metal head once whacked me across the face when I was nine years old, I was out cold for two days!

We both straightened up and we went back into the small cramped ugly meeting room, I was in his office when he was beating me up, but I'd rather spend a day getting my body turned to pulp than spend an hour in the meeting room, no pictures, ugly grey carpet, grey metal walls to match, one lump of metal stuck out of one of the walls, acting as a table, it had been hammered to make it seem smoother than it actually was, you couldn't place a cup of coffee down in a late meeting, it'd just fall over, some stainless steel chairs had been soldered to the floor, the only two things I enjoyed looking at was the door that said 'Mizo's office. No appointment? No time.' And also the door at the opposite end of the room: 'exit'.

Everyone was in the room, so people suffering from claustrophobia had a hard time, Razer and Fyre were both making fun of me for cocking up in my mission, why did the words 'dumb' and 'ass' always spring to mind when I though of either of the two?

Daxter, Jade and Sig were all picturing daggers in the backs of Razer and Fyre, I preferred picturing the daggers in their heads, nice and easy to see them making sure the blood didn't get in their prised hair, I mean, Frye I can understand, she's a girl, girl's like looking good, but Razer? If I took as much time on my hair as he did I'd've given up all hope of ever finding a life a long time ago.

Tess and Edje were working on two small primitive laptops, - struggling to keep the laptops from falling and smashing each time they typed, the 'table' was well and truly useless unless you wanted to stage a monster truck tournament, - as usual they were the prepared ones. I sat down in between Sig and Jade, Jade was new to the crime family, but she was a good fighter, and we called dibs on her before anyone else. She could handle guns better than me, and that was saying something.

"Right as we all know, Jak here let himself down big time in this mission, his objective was clear and simple, take out the right-hand man's daughter, we'd take care of the rest, but he failed to kill or even inflict and damage onto the girl even at point blank range, he let her walk away from the incident untouched, where as Jade and Sig managed to shoot the one without the ears in the back three times, and Fyre, Razer and Tess may have even succeeded in killing the other Curver freak!"

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tess shuddering at what she'd done, I knew how much she hated war, and if we had anything in common it was that, but we'd both been forced into it at young ages, and like I said once you're in, you don't get out.

"Anyway, as I was saying, being that Jak here succeeded in nothing, we're going to have to give him a mission that he won't fail in, or we'll have his head on a pole in the wasteland. Is that understood Jak?" I nodded, Mizo really wasn't one to make empty threats. "Now, any suggestions for the mission Jak will next face?"

"How about making him run for a really long time off the world's shortest peer?" Razer immediately butted in, everyone rolled their eyes apart from Fyre, what was with that girl? She had an unhealthy obsession with the guy; he waxed at least twice a week, showered three times a day, spent more money on clothes and hair products than guns, ammo and armour, what she saw in him I'll never know.

"I don't think that's wise Razer do you? Now shut up or else I'll make you in charge of clean up duty for the next two months." Mizo threatened, the dumb bastard shut up straight away. I chuckled, Mizo had hated Razer ever since he was recruited, as far as Mizo was concerned, Fyre had forced him to recruit Razer, and Mizo made more than blatantly obvious that he hated Razer's guts. "What are you laughing at Jak?" I stopped chuckling and straightened my face, half of my training was making sure that I could maintain a still position for at least three hours. "So, if everyone's finished being stupid, I'd like to hear a few more suggestions, ah, Tess?"

Tess looked up from her laptop, she'd been real edgy lately, just about everyone noticed, but nobody said anything, she was usually chatting and joking with us all, but lately she was just a workaholic, and flinched whenever Mizo spoke or moved close to her, she tucked a piece of hair behind her left ear and faced Mizo, but she didn't look at his face, she looked more like she was looking through him, rather than at him.

"Um, well, uh, I guess he's not a bad spy, um, that is, he'd have to prepare, and, uh…" Tess sighed; she rubbed her temples and closed her eyes. "Sorry, Mizo, I'm fresh out of ideas."

"Hmm, a spy you say? That's not a bad idea Tess, any other suggestions?" Nobody said a word. "Right then Jak, your next mission will consist of you being a spy, Tess, Edje, get to work! Everyone else I want you all to train, rest and if you want, go and buy some new ammo or guns, but remember, keep your heads down."

And that was that, my next mission was in the hands of Edje and Tess, but I had a bad feeling that my next mission wasn't going to be easy.

Hmm, not such a great chapter I'm afraid, sorry, but I wanna get onto what happens next with Keira, please note that when I change the character POV, it will usually take place straight after the chapter before it and won't take place after the last time that character told their POV, if that makes sense, I'll tell you if there's a flashback or skip in time. So, read and review please!


	4. 3: Keira: Laying the blame

Okay, here's the third chapter already, and there's gonna be a BIG thickening in the plot, both with Keira and with Jak, there are gonna be more relationships, more drama and more death, aren't I nice to you guys?

Disclaimer: I only own this plot and my OCs; Jade, Fyre and Spyke. Naughty Dog owns everything else.

3: Keira: Laying the blame.

Shiv was dead.

He'd died from three bullets in the back.

And I was getting blamed.

Errol would've been blamed but he was in a coma from a shot to the head, so I was in the main firing line, oh goodie!

Spyke was the first to have a go at me, he sort of had a good reason, he was Shiv's little brother, and even though he looked pretty different to his older brother, what with his blonde hair, soft green eyes and shorter build, there was one thing the two both had in common, lightning quick tempers, oh and did I mention that Shiv was Spyke's only family? You don't need to be a genius to work out what happened after that.

The only two people who didn't seem to be glaring daggers and calling me every name under the sun were Errol (well how could he? He was in a coma!), and my Father, which was definitely new considering that he was usually the first to give me a lecture on how un-thoughtful my actions were and how he was only telling me these things for my own good.

I wished that the ground would just open up and swallow me whole, but that never happened, I was getting blamed for everything, Shiv being dead, Errol being in a coma, everyone from the other side of the city getting away unharmed, even little things like Shiv getting all of his possessions stolen (like it mattered! The guy was dead! His ghost was hardly gonna come back and say 'sorry, can't make it to the afterlife right now, there's a few precursor orbs and a gun I have to collect first!') and Errol having his clothes ripped to shreds, even though he was in a coma and had been dressed in a hospital gown ages ago!

Life is just unfair.

"What the bloody hell were you playing at? The Tipper was directly in front of you, he threw his gun down and you let him escape! Do you have any idea how bloody dangerous that is Keira?" Rayn wasn't raising her voice, but it was full of contempt, I should've kept my mouth shut about the guy letting me go, then again, it wouldn't've made any difference whatsoever; the city had dozens of surveillance cameras hooked up to the main computer at our HQ, meaning we could see what went on everywhere, well on the street at least, the cameras weren't all too discreet so we couldn't hide a few of them in Southern HQ very easily, but we could set them up around it. "So, why did you let him go Keira? Do you have a soft spot in your heart when it comes to men who are such cowards that they can't bring themselves to do their jobs because they're good little boys?"

"I don't know! I just couldn't shoot him! Is that so hard to understand you stuck up bitch!" And as soon as those words were out of my mouth I knew I was in trouble, nobody insulted Rayn unless they had a death wish, the back of Rayn's hand connected with my cheek, I stumbled to one side and all eyes were instantly on me, but I didn't care, it sure was worth it.

"I never want to here you call me that again or else I will arrange for your tongue to be cut out and salt poured into your mouth, is that understood?" I straightened myself up and looked away from Rayn, then muttered under my breath quietly enough for no one to hear me. "What did you just say?" I didn't answer, Rayn grabbed me by my jaw and yanked my head so that I was facing her, I could already feel blood drip down onto my shirt as Rayn's nails dug deep into my flesh. "Answer me or else you'll regret it!"

"I said I'm sorry!" I snapped, but Rayn knew I was lying, I didn't intend for her to think otherwise, it wasn't an ideal position to be in, but Rayn didn't have the guts to carry out most of her threats, so I didn't care about the fact that I was pissing my boss off big time.

"You arrogant little bitch!" I was slapped again, and again, and again, I tried to cover my face with my arms and close my eyes, but as soon as I brought my arms up I was punched in the stomach, this time not by Rayn, but by Spyke, he'd stepped in and had taken me away from Rayn, but he only punched me the once, then I heard a whack and then a heavy thud, and once I'd opened my eyes I saw Spyke on the floor unconscious, blood dripping from a cut in his head, my father was stood directly in front of him clutching his staff like a sword, I smiled, it was a known fact that anyone who laid more than finger on me (apart from Rayn, she could kill me and my father wouldn't retaliate) would get the whacking of a lifetime, never underestimate old people!

"Torn, get over here and take Spyke to his bed, and when he wakes up tell him to come and see me in my office." Rayn ordered, Torn nodded and picked up Spyke, though he had a small build Spyke was still pretty heavy, but Torn was used to that kind of weight, he trained everyday pushing his limits and usually injuring himself in the process, but he didn't care, he had nothing better to do with his spare time.

Most would've carried Spyke over to his bed but not Torn, he was lazy when it came to that sort of thing, so he just lifted Spyke up and threw him onto his bed, direct hit as per usual.

After that there was hardly a word said, everyone went about their business, I just sat on my bed and thought about the guy who had let me go when I was in his territory. I found myself remembering little details that I didn't even realise I'd noticed whilst I was around him, like the slight smell of mustard on his fingers, the fact that the small elastic band tying his hair back was not blue like the rest of his outfit but white, I even remembered the tiny scratch on the tip of his left ear, weird what you can see and not notice until hours later when you have nothing better to think about.

Just then, Torn sat down next to me and tapped me on the shoulder, I turned and faced him, we usually didn't say a word to each other unless we were on missions together and needed to discuss tactics, but since Torn was in a higher ranking to me, we were very rarely on missions with each other.

"Hey, you alright?" Torn asked, I nodded and then frowned, Torn wasn't really one to ask anything apart from 'how many Tippers did you kill?' and 'how much does that knife cost?' "Y'know, Rayn is going to make your life a living hell." I nodded again, like he really cared about my life and how miserable I was going to be for the next few weeks. "Look, Keira I'm not all that great with words so I'm just going to come straight out and ask you."

I leant forward, I'd never seen such a serious look on his face, but there was something else in his eyes, looked like embarrassment, I frowned again and waited for Torn to ask me what ever he wanted to ask, he'd no doubt lost his gun and wanted me to chip in and lend him a few precursors, I'd seen him ask Jinx a few minutes before, Jinx had nodded but I wasn't going to give in so easily, I couldn't remember the last time Torn had done something for me, so if he thought I was going to spend what little money I had on him he had another thing coming.

"Keira, will you go out with me?"

My world stopped.

Ooo, the plot thickens! Sorry I took so long to update, damn homework, please note I am NOT a big fan of Keira/Torn relationships, but I just found it fitting for this fic, you'll see what I mean eventually. So review, and if you want read it a few more times, or try to forget you ever read this fic, either way, the next chapter will be updated a lot sooner I promise!


	5. 4: Jak: Luck

Yes, another chapter, this one will be kinda crap if I have to be honest, but you have to take the good with the bad, so here goes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

4: Jak: Luck.

Let me get one thing straight.

A lot of people say I'm a pro when it comes to spying.

But the truth is, it's all just luck.

The first time I ever went onto a spy mission I was made to listen in on a conversation between two Northern operatives, I was ten years old, and I wasn't much of a fast runner.

I had one small handgun in my inner jacket pocket, a small dagger hidden in my sock, and bread knife placed carefully into a slit in my belt in case things got really ugly, which they usually did when you wore nothing but blue clothing in a place where Tippers were killed like it was going out of fashion.

You see, there are hundreds of people with tipped ears in the world, just like there are hundreds of people with curved in the world, but only a few join the crime family, but member of the crime family or not, you set a foot in the wrong side of Kras city and you're gonna get shot before you can say your prayers and kiss your ass goodbye!

But anyway, back to my first spy mission, the two operatives were twice my size, age and weight, thankfully, they had forgotten to check the small alleyway they were meeting behind for spy and cameras, big mistake on their part, though I was the only thing picking up their conversation, it still meant there would be a massive blow to the North side.

The conversation was about them trying to assassinate our previous leader; Shooter (well, we called him our leader, Mizo called most of the shots, even back then, but when it came to taking the credit and directing the most experienced workers into battle, Shooter was the boss). From what I'd learnt I knew that they wanted to break in, knock us all out with some sort of sleeping gas, kidnap Shooter (and maybe Mizo), then torture them until they surrendered and allowed all Northerners to take over the South side of Kras city or they died.

Once I had all the information I needed, I turned around and headed back towards my base, only to be stopped by a Kras city guard, although the KCG had been bribed into not stopping any adult gang members from walking around with guns, bombs and knives, but when it came to kids walking round and looking for someone to kill, the KCG weren't all too happy about that.

"Where d'you think you're going son?" He asked, I didn't answer, all members of the Southern crime family were taught to say nothing when it came to KCGs. "Y'know, you shouldn't be wearing that little blue outfit of your's around here, people may get… suspicious." I didn't say anything or do anything; I just stared at the floor. "Are you lost?" I didn't say anything. "Would you mind if I searched you for weapons?" I didn't say anything. "I'll take that as a no."

And with that he turned me around so I was facing an ugly grey building, he made me stand completely still then inspected my clothes. And inevitably, he found my dagger and bread knife.

"And I thought you were just a sorry little kid who'd lost his way." The man hissed. I didn't say anything. "Well, I was going to let you go, but since you have these weapons here, I'm afraid I'm going to have to teach you a lesson." I heard him take out his baton and whack it against his palm a few times, I was still facing the wall at the time so I didn't know when he was going to strike me. "Kids today need more discipline."

And with that he hit me across the back of my legs, they crumpled beneath me and I fell in a heap on the ground, he hit me a few more times and then I retaliated.

But the dumb bastard hadn't found my gun, I reached into my pocket, took out my handgun, pulled the trigger and before I knew it, the KCG was on the floor, blood dripping from a bullet wound to the head, whether he was out cold or dead, I couldn't tell.

I ran.

Sadly, the two operatives had heard me, I heard guns being loaded and quick but heavy footsteps behind me as I ran.

I decided against looking behind me to see how close they were, that'd slow me down, so I kept running.

"Get back here you little Tipper bastard!" One of them yelled.

"Once we get a hold of you! We're gonna shove that little gun of your's down your throat!" Nothing better than a good old death threat to get you running faster and faster, one of the rules I was taught in my training flew from my head at that time; never allow threats to make you run faster, the faster you run, the more easily you get tired out.

And that was happening to me quickly.

My lungs were on fire, my mouth was as dry as a bone, my legs groaned in protest, my hair was stuck to my neck with the sweat, but the operatives were still running, and they didn't sound as though they were getting out of breath any time soon.

After that I remember hearing a gun shot, I also remember feeling a sharp pain in my lower back, I remember hearing a woman scream, I remember falling to the ground and grazing my cheek, I remember having something like a coat being placed under my head. The last thing I remembered was someone telling me I was going to be alright.

Next thing I knew I was in a small hospital bed, a few get well cards on a white bedside table, and a nurse noting down a few things on a notepad that looked like it had been passed down through about seven generations.

The nurse told me that I'd been shot in the back, I was lucky the bullet hadn't penetrated my spine, the only reason I'd survived was that Shooter's wife, Natasha, had found me after coming into the North side after no doubt seeing me in one of the cameras set up around the city, and she'd managed to shoot and kill the two operatives.

I'd always liked Natasha, she was only young but she was like a mother to me, when I'd first joined the crime family I was scared and I didn't talk to anyone apart from her, sometimes I'd get upset at night and she'd give me a cup of coffee and ask what was bothering me, and more often than not it was the same thing upsetting me: war.

I finally got out of hospital two weeks later, but when I got back Shooter was no longer there, he'd died of food poisoning two days after I was shot, Natasha didn't tell me because she didn't want to upset me, or make me feel like a failure.

Mizo had taken over the very next day, and once I had recovered, Natasha left the crime family and went to live in Haven City.

That was a long time ago.

But I'd carry the memory on for much longer.

"Jak, Edje and Tess have sorted out your new mission." Mizo grinned, but it wasn't a friendly grin, he was grinning because he knew that it'd be a hard mission, one that would probably end up in me getting injured, or it being a long mission, or both. My bets were on the last option.

"Go on." I groaned, I didn't really want to know, but I knew that there was no way I could get out of doing this mission.

"You're going to go undercover as a Southern traitor, you'll earn the respect of the Curvers and gather as much information on their plans as possible, then when the time is right, you're to kill Rayn, her right hand man, and the right hand man's daughter. We'll take it from there, now, you have two months to prepare for this mission, Tess shall be in charge of getting you prepared and answering any questions you may have." I nodded, but I had a hunch something bad was going to happen on this mission, but I wasn't too sure on whether or not luck would be on my side.

Sorry this took so long and it's so crap, I'll try to make the next chapter more interesting. Oh and sorry for the wait, wasn't working for some reason.


	6. 5: Keira: Tracks

Don't kill me! (Dodges rocks, Molotov cocktails and chickens) I'm sorry I haven't updated in a while, had a huge writers block, but now I've had some of the best plot ideas I've had in a long time, anyway, there'll quite a bit of blood and what not in this chapter, death assured, and there'll also be a little appearance from everybody's favourite monkey-parrot hybrid. Enjoy!

(P.S: As I've probably stated before, this is **not** going to be centred around a romance between Keira and Torn, I don't want to give anything away, but a slight amount of Keira/Torn is necessary for this fic).

Keira: Saved.

Torn and I had been going out for over a month, and to say things were going smoothly was the understatement of the year! Torn was kind, funny, and hot, he took me wherever I wanted to go, sure he was a little older than me, but so what? He had practically no flaws whatsoever.

Well, there was one thing.

Torn wasn't such a great racer. As a matter of fact, he couldn't even drive and I'm a bit of a racing fanatic.

My friends always thought that the reason I loved racing was the sheer thrill of it all; that was only partly true. Racing was the number one sport in the city, and it was the only sport where everyone could get together, whether they had tipped or curved ears, nobody cared, they were either too busy rooting for their favourite racer, or too busy worrying about how much money they were going to loose if their racer didn't win.

Kras city was known for its race tracks, people came from all over the world to play in or see the annual games, I had been to every single one ever since I was ten, whether it was pouring down with rain or 35 degree heat, I'd be there.

I'd decided to go to the races with Torn to get away from the Northern base, everyone was running around like headless chickens trying to think of new ways to get back at Southern HQ for killing both Shiv and Erol. Erol had died five days after the bullet wound to the head.

Kras city stadium was huge, you could spend months looking around it and still find new surprises, the stadium was based on ancient precursor stadiums. To get to your seats you had to walk into the stadium and around instead of in most smaller stadiums, where the stands were high above the stadiums so you just had to walk up fifty flights of stairs to get to cramped uncomfortable seats, making it harder to see the racers but apparently safer.

There were eight racers; 'Orange lightning', 'Sweet stripes', 'The renegade', 'Speeding bullet', 'Late entry', 'Big bad wolf', 'Steel rock' and 'Glory hunter'. Nobody used their own names, too much chance of gangs making bets, losing and going after the drivers.

"Hello and welcome to the Kras city Stadium!" The old commentator was still in business, Pecker had been commentating for years, and was still doing a good job of not getting fired. "Where the strong battle for first place! And the weak battle for life! Today our racers are in for a big surprise! We have enhanced each of their vehicles with a new primary weapon. And there have also been new additions to the track too! The racers shall have to not only look out for other cars, but for traps as well!"

There were a few happy shouts from the crowd, though few admitted it, everyone who came to the races wanted so desperately to see some blood and guts flying around the stadium, and because all racers had to sign a form agreeing that any injuries sustained were their own faults, there were more traps and therefore more fatal injuries.

Finally the racers took their places on the starting line. Both zoomers and four by fours were used in the races; some were reserved only for one of the two, like turbo races for the zoomers and off-road courses for the four by fours, this time, there were five four by fours and three zoomers.

"Racers, on your marks."

Engines started to roar and people started to holler even louder.

"Get set"

The stadium went silent apart from once again, the roar of engines building up.

"Go!"

But the race never started, in the far corner of the stadium a dark figure jumped down into an unsuspecting audience, falling onto at least three people, and it wasn't just some cheapskate trying to sneak into the races without paying, it was something that everyone in Kras feared, a metal head.

Screams emitted from the whole stadium, racers jumped from their vehicles and fled towards the nearest exits, as did many supporters.

But most were too late.

Five more metal heads climbed over the stadium walls, ten more came in through one of the fire exits, and then they flooded in like giant killer ants, ripping people to shreds, lapping up the blood like syrup, crunching down on limbs, destroying just about anything they could find.

I was carried along with the rest of the crowd trying to get out of the stadium, being dragged further and further away from Torn until I was out in the main race track, everyone ran off in different directions.

After the initial shock of seeing the metal heads and getting separated from Torn, I turned to get out of the stadium, that's when I saw a little kid, she couldn't have been much older than five, dark orange hair, green saucers for eyes, wearing a white dress, she ran out in front of me looking for a way out of the madness, instead she found herself screaming her last few words and then becoming a tasty snack for a metal head, I wanted so badly to look away and forget about her, to try and find a way out with Torn, get to HQ, warn them about the metal heads.

But instead I just watched, I watched the beast rip her clean in two at the waist, after twenty seconds of the metal head first slicing her open, the girl was nothing more than blood and bone.

My mind flashed to Torn, he'd either run out of the exit safely (_highly unlikely)_, was trying to fight off the metal heads (_possible)_, or was dead (_most likely)_, but that was the least of my problems at the time.

There were few elves left in the stadium, most had been beaten to the exit by more hungry metal heads, the rest were running like mad to get out of the stadium and back home or to find help.

The metal head that had eaten the girl licked its lips, then set its beady black eyes on me, I got ready to run when I saw the Metal head run away from me, I looked around and saw a blue Anvil RTX screeching to a holt next to me.

"Get in, unless you wanna be metal meat." Came a man's voice from the car, I didn't have to be told twice, I jumped in quickly and held onto the sides of the seat. "Hold on, this ain't going to be an easy ride." And the car set off.

The guy was right, it wasn't an easy ride, he didn't take anytime to shoot or evade the metal heads, he just drove over them, not caring that there were an increasing number of dents in the car, and a few gashes that had cut straight through the car.

"Just a little further now!" His voice quiet and muffled from his blue helmet, the roar of the engine and the sound of metal head bones cracking under the vehicle.

"What are you talking about? We'll never make it to the exit!" I screamed back to him.

"Who said I was driving out of here? These metal heads are gonna kill more and more people if they're not stopped now!" He shouted back. "Time to kick some metal ass."

"You're crazy!"

"Tell me something I don't know!"

I was thankful for the guy's good driving and knowledge of the track, otherwise we would've been dead and digesting just nicely in a metal head's stomach, instead we were 'safe and sound' in the 'RTX, with plenty of metal head guts splashed out on the front of the car.

"Shit!" I looked at the guy sitting next to me a saw that a metal head had pounced onto the car and was currently biting down on his helmet. "Hit it!"

"With what?" There wasn't much to use in the car, no bits of metal sticking out of the car, no sharp metal head remains other than a few broken off claws on the outside of the car that would take some more than a human to take out, not even a heavy manual to throw at it.

"Check the glove compartment! And hurry, this helmet isn't a metal head chew toy in disguise!" So I checked the glove compartment like he asked (or to put it more precisely, demanded) and found a small G'16 mini lazer gun, fully loaded and ready to use. "Good, now shoot it!"

I did as I was told and shot the metal head a couple times in the head, it keeled over and off the car but took the man's helmet with it, then I realised the guy driving was the same one who'd spared my life a few weeks ago!

"You!" I screamed.

"Look, this is no time to get distracted alright? We've still got a lot of metal heads on our tail, I need you to drive for me whilst I get up on the gun." I had to slide over onto his lap before he could even try to get up onto the gun, the last thing either of us wanted was to make it through a metal head attack and end up dying in a crash instead, the guy then slid out from behind me, quickly stepped onto my shoulders for a quick boost – I was surprised at how light he was – and used the machine gun in the back to take out as many metal heads as possible. "Try not to crash into too many metal heads, just find as many green eco packs for the car as you can! I'll take these ugly bastards from here!"

Driving the 'RTX was harder than I'd expected, it was fast, but the steering was crap, the car didn't turn until five seconds after you needed it to, I realised then I'd become too used to my zoomer, it even felt weird to sit in, usually I was used to laying on my stomach instead of sitting upright.

"Only a few more left!" I heard the Southerner above me yell. I made my way towards another green eco package, using my last bit of blue eco I blasted through the pack, the tiny organisms got to work on repairing the scratches and dents in the car. "Turn around!" I looked back and nodded, then turned the car around as quickly as possible without loosing control then I drove back to the start of the race-track.

The Southerner jumped down into the seat next to me.

"You sure can handle yourself on the track." He said to me.

"Thanks. To be honest I'm more used to racing a Zoomer than a four by four." I admitted.

"I noticed, it gets easier, you just have to put yourself five seconds in front, that's all."

"Right, I'll try to remember." And I did, and like he said. It did get easier, not a lot easier, but easier than thinking the car wasn't going to turn at all and that we were both going to die in a smouldering wreck. "Hey can I ask you something?" Stupid question, the guy was more switched on than I'd hoped, he knew I was going to ask him something personal, and from the look on his face I could see the answer without him even having to open my lips.

"No."

"Okay."

"Sorry." He apologised, and he sounded like he meant it, like he was almost sad that he couldn't answer my question, but I guess his life was already on the line, he'd met me twice and hadn't succeeded in killing me. "Look, I want you to forget what happened here, go back to your quarters, don't say anything about what happened, understand?"

"Yeah." I sighed. "Don't worry, my lips are sealed."

"Good, now I—What the hell is that?" I turned back to look at what the fuss was about, the man beside me was looking at something on his side of the car. "Look, We've gotta get out of this car, it's not safe, now hold on!"

Before I could say anything, I had two arms wrapped around my stomach, I let go of the steering wheel and kept my eyes firmly closed, a quick lurch in my stomach told me we'd jumped out of the car and then a dull wave of pain over my back told me, we were back on the ground.

I opened my eyes and found myself laid on top of the man who'd spared my life twice; he was laid on the floor looking up at me with a stunned grin on his face.

"What are you looking at?" I frowned; he simply chuckled and nodded towards my grasp on his arms. I got up and dusted myself off straight away feeling colour rush to my cheeks. "Keep your thoughts to yourself buddy, I don't want to hear it!"

"Who said I was going to say anything?" He challenged, I was going to snap back until I saw the guy's car explode into a blaze of metal scraps. "You and I had better split, now remember, you never saw me, okay?" I nodded quickly and we both ran off to our Bases.

Finally, it's over! Huzzah! The next chapter is going to be in a different character's Point of view! Sorry for the reuse of certain words, and I'll definitely try to update a lot sooner this time!


	7. 6: Torn: Payback

The latest addition to the 'love for the other side' fic! This is written in Torn's Point of view! And after this chapter, the times of where the chapters are set are going to move around a little, but don't fret! I'm not going to set it back years then fast forward it to a post apocalyptic world… although… Uh, anyway, on with the chapter!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Rated for: Character death, violence, and language.

Torn: Payback.

The Kras City Guard had been alerted to the metal head invasion and after an hour of warnings of multiple fatalities, they were finally taking care of the remaining metal heads that had flocked out from the stadium and into the city. KCGs didn't act quickly on any major calls unless it benefited them, or if it had something to do with the Governor of the city.

Thankfully, the scale of the metal head attack wasn't as bad as it had been during previous invasions, the city sirens hadn't been set off, so it was either only a small scale attack (_kind of likely_), the KCG had it all under control (_very unlikely_) or the metal heads had been able to cut off the main power circuits to all sirens and no doubt all eco powered weaponry (_thank the guy upstairs that's not likely_).

Although you could hear from the shouts of the Kras Guards that the metal heads had no doubt found a way in through the Kras city wall, I was sure I knew the truth.Those damned Tippers were working with the metal heads. I should've seen it coming! Everyone at Northern HQ should have seen it coming! Tippers were evil, always would be, it was in their genes.

"We need more men, repeat, we need more men!" I heard a KCG yell into his communicator shortly before he was tackled by a large metal head to the ground and killed short seconds after it plummeted its claws of its right paw into his chest and dragged out his heart and plenty of blood.

The Tipper's little plan to kill as many people in the northern HQ as possible had backfired! There were plenty of people getting ripped to pieces on their side of the city, how do I know this I hear you ask? I'll tell, you.

I was in the Southern part of Kras City at the time. I'd decided to get my hands dirty and make sure the Tippers paid for what they did to our side of the city, to the people on our side of the city… to Keira, I was sure she was dead, no one could have survived in the stadium, I only got out because I managed to use a few crowds as shields, I'd only realised that I'd abandoned Keira when I was out of the stadium and heading back to HQ.

That's when I decided that it was payback time.

I took my handgun out of the holster attached to my waist, loaded it with bullets – if I wanted to get any sort of revenge on the Tippers, I wanted to make sure they bled like road kill – and kept walking towards the Southern HQ, I had a brief idea of where it was, I'd been there before once, we had to try to infiltrate the HQ a couple years before, but we failed to kill the leader.

I wasn't sure who the Tipper's latest leader was – even though we'd managed to breach Southern HQ, most of us didn't even get a glimpse at the leader – so I decided to kill as many Tippers in Southern HQ as I could find, I didn't care if half of them were innocent, I'd have been happy to have killed thirty innocents if I killed even one of the evil bastard's that had let the Metal heads into the city.

I turned a few corners, ran as quickly as I could through a few darken alley and after ten minutes I saw a large building made from metal, no windows, just a door, and the Tipper's symbol spray painted on each wall.

I crept towards the front of the HQ, took out a trusty hair clip I kept with me at all times, fumbled with the lock on the door only to find it was open, I shook my head, they really were making everything to easy for me.

I made my way down the short corridor, there was one door to my left leading to one bedroom, then to my right two doors led to two separate bedrooms, I was guessing that the bedrooms were separated for the opposite sex, but I didn't look in to check, instead I looked at the door to my left, holding my gun so hard that my knuckles turned white, I slowly opened the door with my other hand, peeked in, then, when I saw my first target, I shot as quickly as I could.

She screamed as I shot her first in the chest, then again twice in the neck, as she fell to the ground I ran towards her, placed one hand under her head, then pulled quickly, making a quick clicking sound.

"No." I turned and saw a Tipper, standing in the doorway, mouth open, staring directly at me.

And he was armed.

Well short but sweet as they say, so, who's Torn killed? Who's standing in the doorway? Find out in the next chapter!


	8. 7: Jak: Shocking revelations

Here's the seventh (or if you count the prologue; eighth) chapter for you plot hungry readers! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

7: Jak: Shocking revelations and 'payback' part two.

_(Flashback – Night before the races)._

I sighed as I fell tiredly onto my bed, the day had been long and filled with pointless hours of paper work, my right hand was a nasty shade of reddish-purple from holding a biro for too long, my head was buzzing from having to stare at a computer screen for an extra two hours, and my back was stiff from sitting in the same arched position for too long with no time to get up and stretch my legs.

"Damn paperwork." I mumbled, I decided on the spot I was going to go racing the next day to burn off some steam, nothing better than putting your own and other people's lives in jeopardy by racing around a race track at over two hundred miles per hour with a rocket launcher and machine gun.

My RTX was at the Southern Garage, I should've gone to check it for problems (the last time I didn't check up on it I nearly killed myself on a track that required brakes) but a two mile walk didn't sound too appealing and I was trying to cut back on the whole hi-jacking thing, what with 'low-profiles' to keep up and such.

So I decided to stay in the room and complain to myself, which was easy to do, considering I didn't have very much going for me at the time.

"My bed's uncomfortable, my work's tedious, my co-workers are insane, and we're all gonna be moved out of this sorry excuse for a HQ if nobody comes up with something that will amount to our bills by the end of the month." I grumbled to the ceiling, the ceiling gave no answer, obviously; otherwise I'd be scared as well as annoyed, and wondering if the tales about hallucinogenic drugs being poured into our drinking water were true.

We had two dorms in our HQ, we were welcome to either, I shared a dorm with Edje, Tess and Daxter, then Sig, Jade, Fyre and Razer shared the dorm next door, we'd asked for the wall separating the two rooms to be knocked down, but that took time, money and resources.

"Jak?"

I turned around and saw Tess stood in the doorway, I smiled, Tess usually dropped by to see how I was doing after I'd been snowed under with paper work, she knew how much I despised all things written, which was more than the average amount.

"Hey, what's up?" I asked, Tess walked over to my bunk and sat down at the edge, I shuffled up to her slowly and she flinched as I moved, so I stopped about two feet away from her.

"Jak, can you keep a secret?" Tess asked, her voice was soft and solemn. I nodded slowly. "I… I'm pregnant Jak…"

I stared at her for what seemed like days, my mouth was open with shock, I didn't know what to say.

"Wow." I finally said slowly. "Uh… I guess Edje must be happy huh?" Tess and Edje had been going out for years, they had always been close, best friends and lovers, nice set up if it weren't for the fact they were involved in one of the biggest gang wars in history.

After I said that, Tess burst into tears, I placed an arm around her shoulders for support and shushed her until her sobs died down to a light whimper, then she spoke again, her voice trembling with sadness and… _fear?_

"That's the problem Jak, the baby, it's not Edje's, it's… it's…" She couldn't go on, another fresh wave of tears streaming down her face; I comforted her again until she wanted to talk. "You won't tell anyone?" I nodded once again. "It's Mizo's."

I froze.

Then it all became clear to me; all those times she stiffened when she heard Mizo speak, why he'd been shooting her looks, everything.

And I'd never wanted to hurt Mizo more in my life for what he'd done.

"He told me, if I didn't agree to… you know, he'd shoot me… and then Edje too." Tess went on. "He knows I'm pregnant, he'll know if I get an abortion, and if I do get one, he'll not only kill Edje and I, he'll make sure Edje knows why he's being killed."

I had nothing to say, so I just gave Tess a quick squeeze; then she leant over and kissed me. I didn't stop her, but I didn't kiss back, I'd kissed girls in the past, but Tess was… different, she was already in love, and she was a friend, a very good friend at that.

"Thank you." Tess whispered as she broke away from me, stroked a small piece of hair out of my face with her right hand, then her fingers trailed down my cheek and under my chin, she then held my face up to hers making sure I was listening carefully. "Look Jak, I'm as good as dead, I'm never going to make it out of here, but you have a spark, you can make it, when you get to Northern HQ, when the time's right, run and don't come back."

"Where? Kras is surrounded by water, and then-" Tess put two fingers to my lips with her free hand, I shut up and then she took out a large wad of orange notes, all with precursor orbs printed on, the number ten printed in the left hand corner of each one and a short sentence written in black Precursorian text.

"I've been saving this money for an opportunity to get out of here, but Mizo has a close eye on me, there's no way I can leave now, I want you to get out, Haven, Spargus, anywhere, just stay out of Kras, forget everything about this place, this war, everything."

"You're crazy if you think I'm going to leave you here to that psycho!" I broke free of Tess' grasp and got to my feet, but then sat down quickly as she shot me one of her special 'If you want to father children later in life you'd better not cross me' looks.

"There's only enough for one boat ticket, besides, you'll be out of Southern HQ and in Northern HQ soon, you'll have a ton of time to make your escape, by the time Mizo realises you're gone, you could be sunning yourself on Spargus beach or finding a house in Haven city." Tess had always been a pretty persuasive person, but I had also always been a pretty stubborn person, so she was going to have to try harder if she wanted me out for good.

"I could be sunning myself on a beach and I could be buying a house in Haven, or I could be shot dead by the Northerners, or by Mizo, or by a KCG or just die for my 'disguise'" I muttered.

"Negative huh?" Tess shook her head in disapproval and then took a gun out, aimed it at my head and spoke in a deeper, much more intimidating voice. "Don't think that just because I like you as a friend means I won't pull this trigger, I'm doing this for your own good, either you leave Kras, or you'll die."

"Just answer me one thing!" I bargained, Tess listened carefully to what I had to ask. "Why are you helping me? Why not Sig, or Daxter or Edje?"

"I already told you! You'll be at Northern HQ soon and I think you have what it takes to get out of here." I chuckled, Tess really couldn't have been much more unconvincing if she tried, and if she didn't have a gun to my face, I would have walked away laughing at her lack of faith in me.

"Tell the truth Tess." I sighed.

Tess didn't say anything, and I didn't think she was going to say anything to me after that, but then she took the gun from my face and spoke to me, never keeping eye contact.

"Let's just say I made a promise to someone a long time ago, and I intend to keep that promise." Jak looked at Tess puzzled by what she had just said, but he didn't pursue the question further, even though she had lowered the gun from my face, she still had it in her hand, ready to use if I got on her nerves.

"So why did Mizo sleep with you?"

But before Tess could answer, Daxter barged in, I got up quickly and went to talk to him, acting like nothing had been said, and Tess went into the small meeting room to catch up on some extra work.

_(Next day, just after Jak and Keira leave the stadium.)_

I ran back to HQ to warn everybody about the metal head attacks, taking a few shortcuts when necessary, down alleyways, over bridges, under countless barbed wire fencings, not caring about the increasing pain in my lungs.

I knew I wasn't far away from HQ, so I stopped for a minute to rest, we'd taken metal head attacks before, usually without too many serious casualties, I knew they wouldn't need me to help them fight the metal heads off.

I took in a few glorious gasps of oxygen and got ready to run again.

But before I could start back to HQ a large grunt jumped out in front of me, I had no guns on me – all of my weapons were either back at HQ or in the car – so I had to use my fists.

Punching metal heads isn't easy by the way, their skull gems are heavy and protect their skulls, so there's no point in punching their heads, their shoulders and back are clad in heavy metal armour, the only place you can really hurt a metal head is on its stomach, unless you have a gun, then you can shoot them twice and they'll be dead.

I managed to get it angry enough to get onto its hind legs and roar and then I took my chance to kill it. I ran forward, fists clenched and punched the metal head's soft stomach, it fell onto me, pinning me to the ground, then I remembered I wasn't completely gunless, I reached into my back pocket – the metal head had only concentrated on getting on top of me, it hadn't made any effort to stop me from using my arms – and pulled out a small hand gun, I shot the metal head through the stomach three times, it stopped, then died on top of me.

I had never realised how heavy metal heads really were until then, I thought my ribs were going to crack under the weight, but I managed to slide out from under the metal head and set off back to HQ.

I looked at my watch, it had been about an hour since I left the stadium, so I ran as fast as I could back to HQ.

Within three or four minutes I was at the door, I decided to try and find Mizo in his bedroom since he spent a lot of his time there and not where he was supposed to stay, like in his office.

As I walked into the hall I heard someone scream, then gun shots, they were coming from Mizo's bedroom, so I took my gun out and pushed open the door of Mizo's room.

There was a guy in red clothing with brown dreadlocks reaching his shoulders, stood over someone, I peered around him to see who it was.

"No." I gasped.

The man – the murderer – turned and saw me in the door way, he held his gun up to my face and fired, but I was too quick. I dodged the bullet, dropped my gun and pounced on him.

I hit his gun out of his hand with one fist, and with the other I punched his face as hard as I could, and didn't stop until he'd gone still, in fact, I think I kept punching his battered face long after he'd stopped breathing.

I then got up and sat down next to his victim.

Blood was surrounding the corpse, no sign of life, neck broken, several bullet wounds, no coming back.

I bit my lip as I felt tears pour down my face, which was already speckled with blood; I sat down by the side of the body and sighed.

"I'll make you proud Tess."

End chapter

Damn it that took forever to write, I had two ideas for this chapter, but I prefer this one, anyway, I'll try to update sooner rather than later. Read and review!


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